Monday, April 4, 2011

I have not been on this blog thing, for a long time. At request, I am half forcing myself to put something up. I would like to thank the individual who prompted me to do so, for they are awesome.

My excuse for not being on is the usual, see other posts for excuses.

Have you ever tinkered in time dilation? The concept regarding traveling at very high speeds, close to the speed of light. The closer you travel to the speed of light (if you start below or above, but for simplicity sake we'll assume we're looking at what travels under the speed of light), the slower time moves around you. The answer to this is surprisingly simple. I think I've made note of it on this blog before, but this post will be devoted to it.

Physics, it's for the win.

First of all, we have to consider the speed of light, c. Light travels at 3.00x10^8m/s, no matter your frame of reference. This is a bit counter intuitive, but true. Normally something may appear to move 10m/s, but if you are moving in the same direction at 7m/s, it will appear to move at only 3m/s. Your perspective changes how you see the speed. No matter how fast you move, light appears to move at the same speed, c.

To maintain this, light must have some odd characteristics. One of them is it may slow time down if needed. The only time this is needed, is when someone is moving close to the speed of light. In clasical physics, if you move close to the speed of light and you are assuming the speed of light is not fixed (it changes with perspective, rather than maintaining it's speed), light should appear to not be moving or it would be moving very slowly. Just as in our 10m/s thought experiment, we should be able to slow light down by moving close to it's speed. I feel like I'm rambling and repeating myself, so this might be a bit jumbled.. I think I have my point across?

Light always goes at the same speed, no matter how fast you are moving. The characteristic of time slowing down to maintain this is needed so we do not 'slow down light' by moving quickly. If it did not do this, physics would break. Yes, that is a good, simple explanation.

Now you may be able to see where this is going. Rather than the 'm' in meters per second slowing down, the 's' does. Velocity is measured in m/s. Lets do some math.

You move a displacement of 100 meters in 10 seconds. Your velocity is 100m divided by 10 seconds, or 10m/s (10 meters traveled, per second).

Now, if we increase this to 150 meters in 10 seconds, our velocity is now 15m/s.

Lets assume the speed of light is limited at 101m/s though, so when we get to 100m/s it is needed for time and/or light to 'slow us down' somehow. As we try to increase the speed, the energy goes towards slowing down the time. Instead of 100m being traveled in one second, the same distance is traveled in two seconds.

Now there is not a doubling of time, at least with numbers like this. Keep in mind these are just demonstrations with no relation to actual numbers. Two is just an easy to work with, when we started with one.

Another way to look at it is as this:100m divided by 10s is 10m/s.100m divided by 20s is 5m/s.The distance traveled is equal to what was traveled original, but it takes more time now. We do not observe a change in a distance, but we do observe the change in time.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

If you have not read my post two previous to this one, So, Then it Was, I would strongly advise you to look over it before this post. This is a continuation of it.

So, Then it was a bit more Complex

To summarize the previous events in the universe, up until this moment, there just was. Everything existed, more or less. It may not of been in the state that we are familiar with, but the matter and energy was there. The basic laws of physics still applied as well, though this makes it sound like we are looking forwards towards this time. Really, there was no before from our perspective. This was the beginning of time, when anything was first observed by an omnipresent consciousness and by doing so bringing it into reality. From there, with a little bit of manipulation from the consciousness, a bit of probability, and a large amount of time, the everything that made the universe was pulled into one area and it exploded outwards. This later would be called The Big Bang, but for now it just was a release of energy in a very small amount of time. The reasoning behind this explosion not having a name, was that the simple concept of naming anything was not needed or even thought of at a the time. This event marked the beginning of what most cultures will consider the 'scientific' beginning of existence.

As in previous events, the time that it took for this to pass did not really matter. After the explosion, observing the explosion, and learning quite a large amount from it, the consciousness which existed did not do much more. This was lack of anything being done was not a result of laziness, or a lack of inspiration. The heart of the issue revolved around there being a literal lack of anything to do. Unlike a regular child's lack of inspiration to do anything causing a mental state of boredom, this related to a literal lack of anything to do. When all you may do is observe and the rate of time that you observe at is easily manipulated, there is a chance to spend too much time observing an event. This created the first mistake, being spending too much time on something.

Of course, this mistake would be made again but it is much more likely to be avoided. The probability of it happening changed again, and now the universe was back into a state of pure probability. The outcome of all this observation, though, was a learning of the inner workings of matter and energy. A complete understanding of physics became available to the concisouness.

Now to fast forward another eon of time, mostly consisting of a few experiments and more observation, a few spots of interest appeared. Several of them being mast bodies of matter, though the smaller ones with complex workings developing on them were far more interesting. The ability to observe everything at once became unneeded, for all the attention of the conciseness was pulled towards one grouping of stars, in paticular one plannet within them. This local area of space was not needed to be observed in interaction from other systems, for it was too distant from anything else to be bothered with for quite some time. With time being considered arbitrary on the most part, it was now given more meaning and put into a perspective of a percentage of time before the system would have to be metaphorically zoomed out and the entire universe would have to be examined. I'm sure it's easy to guess this planet would later be named Earth.

Thursday, March 3, 2011

For my comparative civilizations class, we had to write an essay comparing some creation stories. I thought mine turned out decently, and I would post it here. Recently I was alerted I was not posting often enough, so here is some filler as I finish the post I started last flex block.

Every civilization has its own explanation on what existed before humans or even Earth, how Earth was formed, and how humans were made along with their purpose. These explanations, which are often called creation stories, have several similarities in what existed before the earth was created, who existed then; the creation of earth, its features, and often even the creation of the celestial bodies; and the creation of humans and their roll in existence. A very common creation story is the Judaeo-Christian story of creation that can be found in Genesis (the first book of the Bible), which is easy to relate in theme or individual events to many other creation stories; whether it be the Islamic creation story found in the Koran, the Greek or Roman creation story that is found in Mediterranean mythology, or the Mayan creation story which has been deciphered through the findings of ancient cities and artifacts.

The book of Genesis is said to be written by prophets that had the story bestowed upon them from God, so it is often considered to be written by God rather than a human being. In this story, it is assumed that God already existed and nothing else. On the first day of creation, he created light, along with the Heaven and the Earth. In this process, light was divided from darkness and time was also created. The second day was spent with separating the sky from the water, which was complemented by the third day’s production of land and vegetation being created. With the Earth and all its land masses now assembled, the celestial bodies of the sun, moon, and stars were then formed. The fifth day of creation included the creation of birds and ocean dwelling creatures. It was not until the sixth day that animals were made, and then, finally, humans were made in the image of God. Humans were given control of the Earth and all the creatures that now existed. The story then goes on to tell about about Adam and Eve, the first humans whom were created. By the consumption of a fruit from the tree of knowledge (what the fruit actually is up for speculation, but a common perception is it may have been a pomegranate) the first sin, or act against God, had been made. Of course, this was not done without inspiration from Satan in the form of a serpent. This was considered sinfull because God said they may consume any other fruit in Paradise, also known as the Garden of Eden, they were placed in, except for the fruit off the Tree of Knowledge. Due to their disobedience they were cast out of Paradise.

A creation story that has many similarities to Genesis, is the Islamic story of creation. It too was said to be sent from God, also known as Allah, to be written down; however, the time frame this happened it was written is much more recent. In the early seventh century, A.D., the prophet Muhammad received this story during meditation. The story he received assumed Allah and Earth existed already, unlike Genesis which states only God existed initially. In this absence of light Allah mixed the gasses which caused the creation of almost everything. As for humans, they were made after out of dust of many colours that was found all over the Earth and then left this mould to sit for one hundred and twenty years. During this time Satan, also known as Ibis, put a black mark on the mould. Once Allah came back to the mould he breathed the Holy Spirit into it, giving it life. By doing so the human was given a position higher than Ibis and Ibis was instructed to bow down because of this. The punishment for refusing this was banishment. In his time away from Heaven, Ibis created a plan to enact revenge on the newly created humans. Just as Satan tempted Eve in Genesis, Ibis tempted Adam and Eve to consume the forbidden fruit. They too were cast out of Paradise, the shell-like covering form by the mould split open and everything fell off except for their fingernails and their toenails. The angel Gabriel took pity on Adam, who fell to Earth at a different location than Eve, and taught him farming, spinning, weaving, mining, medicine, music, and geometry. Eventually Allah accepted Adam’s repentance and sent him to Mecca where he was reunited with Eve and they became the parents of humanity. In this story, specific events form Genesis is expanded on. The concept of there being only one god, the concept that that all creation came from God and a general peaceful sense is also similar. The largest differences to be found relates to the creation of humans. In the Koran it is a gradual event, spanning over one hundred and twenty years. This is quite contrasted to Genesis which has everything coming into creation with the will of God.

The idea that everything simply comes into existence is also not found in the Graeco-Roman (Greek and Roman) mythology surrounding creation. In this story there is nothing before the creation of Earth, except for a bird named Nix. This bird laid an egg, that when hatched, split into the sky and the Earth. In the void of chaos emerged Gaea, the great Earth-Mother. Behind her was Erebos, the darkness; Aether, the light; Pontus, the sea; and Eros, who was love. During sleep Gaea gave birth to several more beings, of whom were given tasks. This lead to the creation of the features on the world, and the animals on them as well. As more generations of beings were given life, some of the older beings became cautious and afraid of the new generation. A prophesy was made that one of Cronus’s own children will seize his sovereignty from you, for he had come to rule the world. In an attempt to prevent this, he swallowed all but one of his children. This child, Zeus, who was not swallowed, was hidden by his mother, Rhea. He gave Cronus a mixture to drink that caused him to spit forth all his children, who were now all fully grown as was Zeus. The children took up arms against Cronus, eventually leading to Zeus becoming the father of humanity. He also ruled over the three levels of existence; the world of the gods on Mount Olympus, the earth and all who resided there, and the dark menacing underworld. Humans came shortly after this, who were made of clay by the god of fire, Promethus. Athena enjoyed these figures, and breathed life into them, despite Zeus’s displeasure with this. He could not destroy them, so rather he denied them immortality and confined humans to Earth. In this story there is a spontaneous creation of the sky and earth, with the breaking of the egg, however the concept of sudden creation is found much less than in Genesis. Everything comes to be over time, and it is made rather than simply summoned.There are multiple gods, instead of one supreme being. Even the individual who eventually becomes the father of humanity is not placed in that position right away. There are moments of peace, but much of this story contrasts the gentle acts in Genesis with the swallowing of children, the poisoning of a god, and an eventual war leading to the downfall of the once ruler, Cronus.

If one is looking for a violent story, they could look to the Mayan creation story which also features a tale of destruction. The Mayan’s believed that creation had occurred several times prior to the most recent creation. Each time the Earth was destroyed by a calamity, only to be created again. This was done by Itzamn’a, whom was the creator of human life along with the inventor of books, writing, and the patron of science and learning, as well as ruler of the day, night, heavens, Earth, and sky. He was not the only god, but rather the head god to several who existed under him such as Ah Kindril, the sun god; Ah Puch, the lord of death; Ek Chua, the guardian god of merchants and travelers; Xaman Ek, the ruler of the North Star; and Chac who ruled over the four domains of rainmaking, thunder, lightning, and storms. Before Itzamn’a caused the most recent creation, there was only the sky and the sea. He did this by summoning the Earth, mountains, and trees all from the water. The Earth was believed to be resting on the back of a giant crocodile, floating on a lily pond. From there it was divided into three levels of existence, all stacked upon each other. These would be the underworld, the Earth, and the sky. Within the sky there were thirteen heavens. Within the underworld there were nine layers. The Earth was placed between all of this. On this layer, humans were created not just once, but three times. The first time they were too stupid, and destroyed. The second attempted featured slightly more intelligent beings, however they were annoying to the gods. In punishment the gods turned the tools against these beings, and chased them into the forest where they became the creatures which resemble humans; monkeys. This story has a few features which are found in few other stories, such as multiple creations of everything and humans in specific. This story is peaceful on the most part, if you are to turn a blind eye to the tools who wanted to do what the humans had done to them. This can be compared to Adam and Eve being removed from paradise. The final attempt to create humans created the beings that exist now, humans with souls, knowledge, and free will.

Free will is something that is found in all of these four stories that have been described, along with the creation of humans to worship God or multiple Gods. How many beings there are who make for creation varies in many civilizations. One thing that is consistent is there is always at least one being, rather than some modern theories regarding the creation of the world which feature a lack of any omnipotent beings. The similarities in these stories give our modern civilization to view what the opinions of the people before us thought about their world and universe. Most of the stories relate to aspects of where the story was created, such as Genesis featuring a fruit which may have been found in the region where the story was first formed. Many of the stories also feature an underworld, or after life. With that concept, the only way to be sure that any of the stories are accurate is to wait for death and see if our consciousness continues on to be greeted by a being; whether it be God, Allah, Zeus, Itzamn’a, or any of the hundreds of other beings who appear in other creation stories that are found where ever civilization is found.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

I have not posted for a while, I have no excuse past this: Minecraft, Assassin's Creed 2, DDR.

In my Comparative Civilizations class we have been looking into creation stories, it's been rather interesting. The last essay we have had to put together revolved around comparing three creation stories to the Genesis story. I may be posting my essay once it has been finished; at the moment it is in an editing stage. I may have one or two more people look over it then type it all up again. A copy and paste version will be dropped off here.

I've had inspiration to throw together a handful of the stories we've been introduced to, and put together this short series that I intend on creating. It is intended on being three posts long, however it may be a bit longer or a bit shorter depending on how much time I have to type them up. This is my regular Tuesday post, which is not very regular but occurs during my Tuesday Flex block, right after my morning fee block.

Consider everything in this to be just theory or fiction; for there are many aspects of pieces of creation stories and references to events which I cannot find any proof of. More or less, something I read at one time or may of just imagined, but I cannot find a source or have not looked for one.

So, Then it Was.

So, the universe and stuff. It was just there. All the energy, all the matter (which depending on your perspective, may be the same as the previous), all the enthalpy, and maybe even a little bit of gravity between a few pieces of matter. What creates this matter is up for debate, and matter is and how it corresponds to any particle theories, is also up for debate. The fact is, it is just was.

Where it came from, well that's up for any observer to decide, but on the most part it is arbitrary. The gravity is in the same position; how it works and what inspires it to pull one body closer to another just was. Amongst all of this, was a figure. Shapeless, formless, and lacking the characteristics of any form of matter that we are familiar with. It existed as a conscious. This conscious observed what there was, and in doing so made it into more than just a mess of energy and negligible forces.

Any sample of gas, in a closed system, given the time 10^x (x being the number of particles) seconds, also assuming the correct amount of energy which can be expressed as a temperature if you were to have anything to compare it to, will return to the original order of particles. If there are four particles, after 10000 seconds the particles will be found in the positions they were originally placed into.

Now considering an infinite amount of time being available, for time had not yet been invented. Time simply exists by the observers perspective, and the single consciousness had perhaps forgotten about time. Maybe they simply did not with to acknowledge it. Maybe they considered how much time would pass in waiting, and decided to just let it happen. Waiting is quite a dreadful idea, when eons may pass before anything is accomplished.

After this 'stirring' of the universe, the unavoidable occurred and enough of this matter collected in one area are the gravity between two masses become notable. The consciousness that existed, what could be considered an omnipresence in that moment, noted this notable event and decided to try something with it.

To have true freedom, is to only have the limits that you set yourself. If you are the only consciousness about, you are the only one who may influence your limits. Why limit yourself at all in this situation? A seeming unlimited power could be at the metaphoric hands of any being of the moment.

In a world of pure probability, there may be several decimals that float off to several hundred digits. Numbers so small that they are not worthy considering, or even creating a calculator with enough places for the numbers to fit upon it. These may be easy to ignore, for tampering with them may cause nothing more than rounding errors if you desire to be amazingly precise. In this world of pure probability, the idea that changing a few numbers around and seeing if there was any difference may only result in the occasional collision sending one of the colliding chunks of matter of a thousandth of a degree from the path it would of taken anyways. This slight difference may not seem like much; although even the smallest change will become quite noticeable at large scales. An object that is taken off path by even this small amount, will be very far off path after an infinity of travel.

To avoid this happening, to ensure there was a slight amount of potential for the universe to turn into something, the consciousness manipulated what was possible to keep as much of the matter in a local area. If everything few off and away from each other it would be far to spread out to hold any chance of anything. Just as our upper atmosphere has gas particles which are heated to hundreds of degrease Celsius, they are not close enough together to cause any burning to the skin if you were to expose yourself to them.

In doing so, this created the close system needed for the 10^x idea. Eventually everything would return to the position it started in. It would just take a very long time. Within this idea, this closed system, with the set rules of physics that we all abide by in day to day life, the two pieces of matter that clumped together became one mass. In time, the probability of another collision causing a fusion of mass from any perspective happening again decided to cause an event. Time and time again this happened, until the average mass size was much larger than before. The occasional mass that was of the size of two masses already would collide, creating a mass three or even four times the size.

It was easy for the observer to see where this was all leading to. Maybe the potential that was created by keeping all of the matter in a closed system was leading to a combining of all the matter. As the process of masses joining up continued, their individual gravity fields grew; but so did the space between them. A little help from this consciousness accelerated the process, but it still took a very long time to create.

After time, which could not be measured by any conventional method, all the matter had been grouped together. It was apparent that something was happening within it though. The core of it was under large amounts of pressure, the energy that was spread amongst all of the universe was now in a specific region of space. The gravity of it pulled all the energy it could to the center, however the mass of it could not collapse any more in many points. This left empty matter, free of any energy more than the minimal amount that will leave it in existence. Of course this was at the crust of all of this. The core was at the maximum amount of energy that could stay there.

Nature has a way of creating balance. If there is an excess of something in one area, that excess will tend to spread to the area of absence. At some points this natural desire will be overcome by barriers. At some point, however, any barrier will be overcome by the difference.

An explosion. A release of energy which started the process of spreading of matter through the closed system again. This time in a more even spread. This explosion was not as we may observe any explosion though. Most explosions that we may observe have the limit of velocity and time. This only had the limit of energy. In order to see this in the best detail, the observer more than less simply slowed time. The rate of time which would pass as an action would occur was the same, but when you have no limits you may warp ideals a little bit. To observe something in an omnipresent perspective is something that no human mind may fully comprehend for we will never be able to observe it ourselves. In an opportunity of observation, with as much time as you may need to look at something, when you may view it from all angles, perspectives, and spectrum, may leave you with the chance to learn a fair amount. This knowledge will be increased dramatically when what is being observed is all the matter that will ever exist, all interacting with itself.

This spreading of matter continued to exist in a slowed state, for in a real time view it would be far to quick for a consciousness to observe even if they could see it all at once. It would be like watching a thousand ants all at once, and trying to write down what they are all doing and how they are all interacting; all in real time of course. In doing this, the idea of the universe is in a constant expansion came into existence. It will continue to expand until it reaches the edges of the closed system that was put into place, and when it does the only being in existence would likely pull it back towards everything else so it may start again.

In doing so, in all of these events at a micro and macro scale, the universe was made and the concept of existence was put in place. So, what would be called the big bang (a probable name that the observer of it may give if the idea of giving something a name had occurred to them) by later conciseness, just happened.

Monday, February 21, 2011

an Eye for an Eye and a Heart for a Heartthey say Mosaic Law has been Abolishedbut that's just the Startone more Clever statement, to filter the diseaseone more Thoughtful speech, to put the Politicians to their knees.Don't mind my occasional outbursts of words that fit together in a manner that I see to be positive. I shower, I think, I shower when I think; or rather think as I shower. Sometimes these things just happen.In my Law class, I'm finding the work very easy and having troubles staying where I should be in it. Never before have I had to put off doing work so I don't get too far ahead in the class. Despite my misinterpretation, which had me thinking I had another month to finish three questions (turns out they were due last Thursday but I had them done then anyways), I believe I'm still ahead of where we are meant to be and likely most people in that class. There seems to be a fair number of individuals who don't do any work. It brings me a fair amount of amusement often.Apart from the lack of work, which at times is dreadful but other times a blessing; especially considering my Physics class is right before or after it. It's nice to have time to continue working on work from a class that I am disappointed to find ending, especially with a break two to three minutes long only. It gives me time to walk and stretch a bit, but not let the simple concepts we're working on at the moment slip away from my main stream of consciousness. Lets try this again.. Apart from the lack of work, which at times is dreadful but other times a blessing, we have a large amount of time devoted to class discussion. At first I found this less than desirable but I have quickly grown to enjoy it."No, this is not how you learn at school. Where are the questions from the text book that cause us to think? The teacher is not suppose to be able to bring up topics that interest enough people for us to grind our mental gears together."Well, it looks like what I have become very use to for a Social-Studies-related class is quite inaccurate and class discussion has proven to be great. On the most part we've been given hypothetical situations, along with a bit of knowledge to back up the statements we make and ensure they are not too ignorant to the topic we are examining. I've been quite impressed with how the group dynamic works around the topics, and how it is often apparent that the general opinion will shift over time. From what I can tell, my opinions are usualy fairly solid but will sway a little bit. The way I approach most of the topics is how I would approach any difficult situation; it would appear my mind works in a slightly legal manner already.I prefer to think of the way I think as analytical, because that is an awesome word and I think it fits the way I tend to examine everything, very well. The topics often address morals, tricky legal situations, and I've noted how a lot of them address problems in our legal system. Canada's legal system is so flawed, but I would imagine every large government is going to have a very flawed system. I think this is just a problem with any big government, especially in more modern times. There are so many new problems that need to be addressed, and so many people who are in political positions are afraid to address them. I don't see why they do not want to put their opinion out in some way. I'm sure most people who are not politically involved are not afraid to tell everyone their opinion on touchy topics that have not been addressed in court.I'm certain I'm going to be saying much more about my Law class. It is rather phenomenal; perhaps I could almost compare it to my Psychology class and how awesome it was.. except it is not. It is great, but my Comparative Civilizations class must take the prize for 'most like C Block Psychology.' I'm crediting this to the fact that it may as well be the same class, as for people atleast. Perhaps eighty percent of the people in my Psychology class have found their way into my Comparative Civilizations class. It's great. All my classes are great this semester. It has to be the best semester I could wish for.Sleeping Beauty is in my Law class, but due to her being lame she has missed the past few classes; so I thought I would take the chance to brag about our great discussions and how she missed them and I'll also tack on how much she would of loved being in them. This is all.>> Bugworlds

Friday, February 18, 2011

DDR, Assassin's Creed II, Minecraft; my life has been revolving around video games for the past few days but I don't mind. Sleeping Beauty has gone out of town for a few days but left me her xBox so I may kill time effectively. So far, it hasn't worked very well. First day I forgot a controller, second day I needed to get a game from a friend but didn't get it until on my way to my school's dance (hence Just Dance, but I felt clever putting a fourth video game into my title), and yesterday I waited for a friend to show up at my house before starting my assassination shenanigans so I only got two hours of game play done. This may seem like a fair amount of time, but this is a long game with a lot of side quests. It looks like I'll be busy for a while.

As for Dance Dance Revolution, I've been on a one hour or more regiment of it for the past four days. Today will be my fifth if I go to it after school, but yesterday I found it brought back some of the pains I previously had in my left knee. For quite some time my knees were more or less falling apart, or so it felt like. I'm unsure what the problem was, something between osgood schlatter, something I can't remember the name of but it means my knee cap was rubbing against bones in the wrong angle, and muscles in my upper leg that were not supporting enough (which was associated with the knee cap problem). After a lot of rest, they seemed to get better. Apparently rest helped one condition, but not the other. It was a tricky balance but it looks like I'm all better except when I agrivate my knees. One to three steps a second, sometimes even four, for three thousand six hundred seconds shouldn't be too aggravating right? Well that's assuming I play the entire time, but there are breaks between songs and I will sit down to catch my breath on occasion, play an easy song, then get back to my expert difficulty.

And I'm starting to find expert to be not that difficult, again at least. When I first acquired the game I played for ridiculous amounts of time until I was great at the game. With a loss of interest in the game from my family I shied away from it. Now I'm back and working towards being better than I was before, not that I have much to use as a marker for my skill. I figure when I can play the songs on my game (SuperNOVA 2, right now I'm playing Extreme 2 which is being borrowed from Sleeping Beauty) that I could barley pass or couldn't pass before, I will declare myself at the top of my ability.

As for Assassin's Creed, which I am not sure if it should have an apostrophe or not, I'm loving the second game in this series. The story is great so far, and I'm not even that far into it. I think the graphics are better than the previous game, but they might just be done in a different style so it's more notable. I've found that I'm not always attuned to what looks better, but what looks different. Perhaps because it is in a more modern area it has a slightly more sophisticated feel to the environment. The features that were in the first game of this series, I thought were great. Of course there were a few complaints, such as a limit in some aspects of combat or problems with the climbing system. I don't have all the features for the second game yet, they need to be unlocked, but the simple features that you start off with are great. The combat system for hand to hand is great, and it gives you the opportunity to punch a guard in the face a few times even if they have a sword. I've only gotten to use a sword for a few minutes before it was smacked out of my hand by an axe wielding giant, sorry for the spoiler but it was small so I decided not to go back and put a warning in about it. I've progressed as far into the game as learning how to steal, having my hidden blade fixed, and I was about to use it on a guard who was beating up Da Vinci (easily my favorite character so far) when I messed up and then had to leave. I'm hoping the automatic save took place after the cut scene (which I think it did). The auto save icon, along with most of the icons in this game, annoy me a bit in their odd shape which just doesn't seem to fit in; but the auto save system seems to work very well so I'm not complaining too much.

Minecraft, the game of simple graphics (which I love) and frightening creepers. This must be the most frightening game I have ever played. I know I have not played many games meant to be frightening, but I know several people who have and who play Minecraft often. They will agree that it has a ridiculously uneasy feeling at night time or in caves. I am just getting to exploring my first natural cave, after several hours in the world I am working on. I was shy to go to the caves, because I have been doing a lot of above ground work. I have my own cave system that I hollowed out entirely by hand except for a (maybe) 100 cubic meter area that has lava and some natural water. I intend on harvesting all of the lava, well moving it to a cave closer to the surface so I may use it for my glass tube lighting system eventually, and then once I get a diamond pick I will be removing the obsidian from the area. I'm in the process of moving everything I have underground, more or less. Above ground I have a sugar cane farm, that is useless considering when I harvest it I get two or three stacks of sugar cane and at most I'm only ever going to need five pieces of it. I also have a wheat farm which is a good size, but I also have one of the underground which works well. I have an artificial island, in the shape of a cube, that has the dimensions 25 x 25 x 25 m and I was going to put a castle on top of it, but it is too small. Instead a log house will go there. I almost have two large chests full of cobblestone for my castle, which I may put on top of the entrance to my natural surface cave. Bleh, that's a frightening cave. There's a lot of sudden drops in it. A few drops that I'm sure would kill me if I were to step off of them by mistake. This combined with a lot of corners and paths that split off in all directions quite frequently, it is not a friendly place. Another underground feature I have is a tree farm that I put in the 20 x 20 x 8 m (8m deep) room. It is entirely underground, and I carved it all out. It may be easy to see where I'm getting so much cobblestone. My glass collection is also becoming huge, and may be taunting me with the idea of an under water fortress. One tunnel I have runs under the ocean, and the ocean was slightly deeper at one point. This would make it very easy to create an underwater glass castle. Did I mention my unground tunnels? I needed a way to get around, so I started to make a tunnel system with rails in it. I ran out of iron quickly, but once I get them working my three minute walk will be much less I'm sure.

At the moment my plans for my world is a pyramid, that I must just put lava on top of and declare it a volcano; a cobblestone castle, which I have the materials for but I'm going to wait until I'm done exploring the cave I found so I have even more materials to work with, a underground tunnel system that will reach every point of my world if I continue expanding it; I didn't mention it before but I think I'll make an underground cactus farm, branching off of my tree farm, just because I can. I already have more cactus than I'll need (over a hundred planted and almost four stacks in a chest); some glass tubes filled with lava for lighting outside, because I think that would be the best way to detour mobs; wooden house on top of my giant island, that really is not all that big but it looks big; hmm, and I'm sure in a few days I'll have more plans.

It's so tempting to make a pun about Dance Dance Revolution now, but I think I'll leave my statement as 'at the school dance, I can honestly say I enjoyed next to every moment of it.' This may not seem like much, but all the previous dances I've been to, I have not enjoyed very consistently. I usually leave dehydrated, which didn't happen this time despite the fact I forgot to get some water before I left. The water fountain seemed to keep me alive properly this time. I usually leave with headaches, which may be due to the water but I credit it to the loud music which bothers me in most cases. I like my music to be quiet. Despite there being a lack of dancing, I usually leave with sore knees as well, which didn't happen. I even played DDR for an hour before it and I ended up with a slight ache for a few minutes once I got home but that quickly subsided. For the first time though, I found myself actually enjoying the process of dancing. It was odd, though I'm sure my statement saying it is odd will be much more unusual for most readers. Everyone seems to enjoy dancing, I never have though. I'm not fond of how everyone forms circles and always arranges a collective mindset it seems, everyone moving at the same time and all that. I would much rather stand in the middle of the room, with few people around me, dancing with Sleeping Beauty. This happened a few times, and I was pulled into a few circles that I promptly got out of in most cases, but all in all it was enjoyable.

You could say, I had a dance dance revolution.. nope. You couldn't say that, well you could but you would sound really cheesy. Yes, I'm glad I didn't say that at the beginning; turning off my readers to any serious words I may hold.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

A while ago I had a realization, when reading the Twitter feed of someone who I follow on Twitter. He said something about a black hole must have a volume, because there is a maximum amount of enthalpy that can be held in an area. I'm not sure if this is true or not, I might look into at some time when I'm typing this up because I have a few things I'm going to need to search.. but I decided to try to calculate the density of a black hole.

I feel a bit nerdy at the moment for this, but I'm curious. I'm making a handful of assumptions, such as a black hole has maximum density (minimal distance between atoms), the area that I will be theoretically sampling will consist of only H atoms (the most common atom to find, and I'm assuming due to the density atoms are prone to breaking down into the simplest atom it can). The area that will be sampled will be 1m squared. Hydrogen is diatomic, it usually exists in groupings of two atoms. I will be ignoring this.

So density is calculated by dividing mass by volume. I already know the volume is 1m squared. I need to find the mass. This will be a bit trickier.

by finding the diameter of a hydrogen atom, I can find how many can fit in a 1x1x1m area. After looking at a few sources, such as a question on a forum, Wikipedia article, and a Yahoo question. One note that someone made in the first link, that when looking at an individual atom (especially hydrogen I suppose) the wave properties of it become very apparent rather than the diameter. Never less, I came to the conclusion a hydrogen atom will be approximately 1.6x10^-15m or 0.000000000000016m. I'm not sure how accurate this is, but it is an easy number to work with.

This means a 1m length, of only one dimension, will hold... lets see. 1/1.6^-15 will equal about 625000000000000 or 6.25x10^13. Considering signifigant figures, it should be 6.3x10^13, but I enjoy it the way it is. 6.25x10^13 cubed will equal 2.453125x10^41 hydrogen atoms. I'll round this to 2.45x10^41.

Now that I have the number of hydrogen atoms in the given area, I will have to find the mass. 1 mole of hydrogen will equal 1g, or 0.001kg. Physics works better with kg, or it's what I'm use to at least. Physics 11 class got me in the habit. 1 mole equals 6.02x10^24 atoms. I need to find out how many moles are in 2.45x10^41 atoms. I think I'll grab my graphing calculator for this.

Some number crunching later; 4.069767442x10^16 moles of hydrogen atoms in a 1m cubed area. This will weigh (going to a rounded number) 4.07x10^41 grams or 4.07x10^39 kg. Check my numbers for me? I think they're right so far.

To finish this up, the mass we have found will be divided by the volume. The volume being 1, there doesn't need to be much math. According to my quick calculations and forty minutes of talking to my friends while a throw numbers together has produced my decision that a black hole must have a density, or at least could have a density of:

4.07x10^39 kg per cubic meter. That wasn't all that exciting at all, but I've had the idea to do this for a few months. The idea was written down in my idea book, and it's been one of the few ideas that I have actually perused in it. Next up may be my particle vibration theory.

My law class got the joy of watching the rest of the video that I have mentioned in my previous post. I did physics work during this time, because I was really looking forward to having it finished so I may spend some time with Sleeping Beauty. Valentines Day and all. I got most of it done, and still managed to listen to most of the video. There were a few moments where I heard familiar names, such as the individual who the U.S. wants extradited to the U.S. so he can be charged for the sale of marijuana seeds.

Mark Emery was his name, if I am correct. The controversy comes in he has done no crime in the U.S. Far as I'm aware, the sale of marijuana seeds is legal in Canada; and if not is it tolerated at least. He has broken no law in the states, however the individuals who have bought the product by mail order may have. They should be charged, right?

If you buy a gun from the United States, through mail order (as these seeds are being bought), and this fire arm happens to be illegal in some way, the individual shipping it will not be charged. You, in Canada, will be charged for picking it up. The same goes for shipping over the boarder to the U.S. so why should Emery be charged? I'm sure this will last a while, but if he does get taken to the states and is charged he's going to have some sentence to deal with.

They consider one seed to be one plant, which is reasonable considering it may grow one plant. Many of them may not grow one plant, but many of them could also be cloned.

I recall there being two points that I mentioned in my previous post which may of not been very accurate, and now that I think of it the previous post I am mentioning occurred two posts ago. My most current previous is related to my comparative civilizations class. If you wish to read it, for the font ended up quite small, try IE. I'm on Firefox, at school, and the font appears very small when I view that post.

Now, the first point was something mentioned in the video but I cannot remember what it is. The second I wanted to note, was the price of marijuana. The video mentioned something about the price being more than gold, depending on the area (maybe?). When I looked up the price of gold, I found it to be more pound for pound. You can check the current price here, at GoldPrice.org, far as I'm aware it updates regularly.

Flex has started, and my free block has ended. The library just became too loud for me to be in and try to write at the same time; so I think I'm going to find a seat in the computer lab.

Monday, February 14, 2011

So, my comparative civilizations teacher wanted me to make a one page reply to the first chapter of our studies. I have a habit of having a lot to say, and I thought the world may be interested in it. I'm quite impressed with how structured it ended up being. We could address the full chapter, or just one aspect of the chapter. I quite enjoyed the ancient sacred sites aspect of this chapter, and have put my thought towards it and what I thought should of been included in this. It lacked aliens.

The Study of Archeology; Response

Ancient Sacred Sites

In this chapter I found the most interesting aspect to be surrounding the Ancient Sacred Sites; however I felt it was not expanded enough for my liking. I would imagine it would be because the chapter had to cover several topics, and if I had my way this aspect could have been a chapter in itself. Several of the aspects approached in this topic, Sacred Sites, were lacking much information that I have acquired due to my habit of listening to the History Chanel as I drift into sleep. There were several ideas, theories, concepts, and facts (well, facts according to the currently accepted theories) that were not addressed that I have come across.

Firstly, in regardance to the topics that were addressed, we approached the ideas of spirituality, religion, and electromagnetic (EM) upwelling’s. We also looked at astrological significance, the idea of calendars relating to the years, events within the years, and significant days (such as when the sun lined up with something, or when the day/night ratio is equal or at its greatest difference); along with the materials, natural significance, and beauty of the sites.

The idea that you are more likely to have a supernatural experience when at a location that has a higher EM charge, is a common theory regarding why the locations of these sites are picked. Religion has a decreasing amount of importance in modern societies; however at the times that we are examining it was often a staple of life and a uniform feature for an entire society. It was not until later in history, where trade and social interaction extended out of local regions, when religions began to spread from more than just their original source and intermingle with other ideologies. With this change in philosophies and views on life, came the loss of religious values of these sites. This was enhanced by the loss of several civilizations who originally constructed the sites. The relevance of the sites, in regardance to a supernaturally charged area, or EM charged area, is a newer development in the study of ancient significant site, and is one of the connecting pieces between sites all around the world.

Another common theme found in ancient sacred sites is a celestial significance. Buildings frequently line up with astrological bodies, such as stars, the sun, or the moon. Frequently they will have several alignments. It is impractical to think of this as just a coincidence, considering the number of stars and the number of buildings that have relation to various stars such as the North Star. This star is one of the brighter stars, from most perspectives of the world. Naturally, those who would worship being who were thought to live in the sky and those who simply observed the heavens would consider this star to be a significant ball of burning gas; however at the time the stars had more of a supernatural appeal than just burning balls of gas that are so far away the numbers are difficult for our human minds to comprehended. Imagine the stars were your only way to get home if you are far from your origin. What if your entire population relied on planting the crops or harvesting them within a small time period, only identifiable by the sun? Just as we have calendars today, they were needed in the past. Large, repeating objects in the sky were often worshiped for their significance to a calendar or their sheer power it appeared they must hold in order to stay there. No matter the reason why the sun or moon may have been worshiped, it is a common practice (or rather was) to create large scale objects or buildings to act as not just a practical piece of architecture, but also to please the Gods of the region. Who would not enjoy having the largest building in the world, at the time, to be devoted to them with such precision that every day when you came over the horizon to view your followers, it greeted you with perfect alignment.

The reasons to why a people may feel obligated to align a building with a group of stars or the sun has several theories; however I feel the reasoning behind the materials chosen to be used in construction to be a very simple idea. It is what was what was available, and it has proven to be very durable. If people were to cease to exist, in this very moment, what human structures would last the longest? Concrete breaks apart, paint peals, steel rusts, and plastic may last forever (or so it seems) but it isn’t used for building large structures. It’s the stone objects that are placed with such precision that they do not need to be jointed together with anything more than puzzle-piece resembling shape. The pyramids of Giza and of the Aztec still stand after hundreds to thousands of years, just as many other buildings still do. It is not uncommon for a building of modern building to be declared unsafe to live in, and is destroyed. Disregarding the historical value of the sites, no one will ever need to take down the Great Wall of China or an ancient city that has been buried under dirt for thousands of years. The use of natural building materials always brings about the idea of beauty. We, in modern times, find nature to have a strong aspect of beauty; just as the ancient people who came before us must have. If a site is devoted to a supernatural cause, it may be desirable for the surrounding area to be beautiful. This is only enhanced by the natural growth of plants, brought about by the sites being left absent for a great amount of time. The hard corners may become worn down, but they are replaced with a soft, vibrant moss. The dirt floors will become covered in lush vines and flowers. Even the natural destruction of some aspects of a monolithic structure will give it the sense of history, which we require to declare something ruins. This natural aging brings about significance to nature, which may have been intended or may have not. It is a matter of the individuals who built it was much more conscious of nature, in comparison to our modern views on the outdoors.

Personally, I do not there to be much of a religious or supernatural value to these sites; however I have not visited any of the sites we have looked at nor any sites I would consider to be ancient or modern sacred sites. I understand the idea of there being an EM charge higher than most areas, but I do not know if I would be able to note it at all. Perhaps the people who built these sites, due to their different views surrounding nature and their knowledge of it, would be more sensitive to the slight differences. The significance to the stars, sun, and moon (and a handful of other celestial bodies) must have been a great idea for the people who created them but they are no longer needed. It is interesting though, to consider how they would have created these and the efforts put into them. I have very little of the stars, and if I were to learn about them I doubt I would try to learn from first hand observations. We have become so disconnected to nature, and do not take the time to observe the stars. Far as I’m concerned, once the sun has gone down and the sky’s are clear the stars are nice to watch as I walk home but nothing I would spend the time watching to learn their patterns. I have books and the Internet for that. I think it’s great that the natural beauty of the sites can be addressed, still after such time. Many of the sites I would love to see as they were built, to see the original paint and all the features that time has deprived us of. Perhaps, in some cases, time has enhanced the appearance of the sites. Ruins have an ancient, mystical appearance. Modern large scale buildings have a sense of functionality, and rarely many artistic features. I think it’s nice though, that more buildings are leaning towards an artistic view. Perhaps we are moving back to our origins?

In regardance to the aspects we did not approach, I can think of a few however the large, largely conspiracy theory based concepts, that I felt were not even glanced upon, was the (often farfetched but still interesting) idea of aliens. Almost every one of the sites we examined has ancient astronaut or ancient alien theories attached to them. Construction of many of the large scale buildings are thought to be related to advanced technologies that could have come from the assistance of extraterrestrial beings. Along with this is the ideas of magic, and even ideas regarding ancient civilizations having much more advanced technologies than us but many of these have become lost (Atlantis anyone?). Cities that have become engulfed by the sea are found worldwide, and I thought should have been included in to underwater archaeology section.

The idea that aliens may of visited Earth, long before modern civilization was around, is often the fall back idea for those who cannot devise a method for the buildings or technologies that were before us. It has been proven that many buildings may have been built with the materials that were in the areas naturally, and projects were built with much more man power than what is considered reasonable now-a-days. It is thought that levitation may have been actually the simple use of levers and pullies. The lift a stone weighing several tones simply needed many strong ropes and a huge line of people all pulling at the rope. This does not allow the explanation of some stones that have been found, weighing amounts overcoming thousands of tones (well maybe only hundreds, but the numbers are quite large).

Another problem to address, that is frequently given the answer of ‘aliens!’ is of some icons that have been found worldwide despite a lack of communication between areas. There have been some figurines with remarkable similarities worldwide that cannot be explained. I don’t think I’ll go into detail about this, but it’s something fun to look into.

As for underwater cities, they did not start there, but the Earth has a bad habit of shifting and pulling stuff underwater. Occasionally it even spits out land where it previously was covered in a saline solution. The idea of Atlantis existing as an advanced civilization is up for debate; however the search for it has lead to the finding of several underwater cities. Some very famous underwater cities that have been located exist in the Eastern hemisphere; such as an ancient, lost, Buddhist city off the coast of India. Between China and Japan, as well as off the coast of Eastern Japan, there have been many cities located. These have suggested that the land that is now under the water there may have been previously elevated. Other structures in the Indian Ocean suggest that India may have previously been attached to Australia by a sunken land bridge. The same goes for China and Japan. Along with continental drift, land lowering and rising is a common occurrence over long amounts of time.

These cities have given us insight to civilizations that we have never considered, and filled into the missing gaps of information that the sea has eaten up. Just because I enjoy the alien theories I think I will point out a handful of the underwater cities that have been discovered have had relation to alien theories.

I’ve enjoyed this chapter, for what we have looked over and the knowledge I’ve already had retaining around what we have not looked at. Me and Will have had a great time trading alien theories through the chapter, often getting odd looks from those who are around us. I’m looking forward to the future chapters, which will likely go into more detail to several of these topics we have introduced. I’m sure I will have lots to say in regardence to much of what we will be doing.

Sunday, February 13, 2011

My law class is amazing, a few days ago we watched a video about the problems of prohibition of marijuana. Personally, I prefer the term pot. It's the name I'm accustomed too, and I have issues with spelling. Marijuana is just slightly too strenuous for me to try to think through if I'm spelling it correctly and then go back with my spell check after and find out that most of the spellings of it were incorrect.

Prohibition, never really works. It may detour the use of the use of the substance, but it will never completely scare it away. Just because the sign says skateboarding prohibited, it doesn't mean it will be stopped there; it just means you need to go fast. I was very impressed by the documentary, with how it addressed prohibition and how well it worked.

"Think of the first prohibition." "Alcohol?" "No, no. Before that." "Uh.." "Adam and Eve, and the forbidden fruit."

I'm aware not everyone viewing this documentary may agree with that story, but they all know it roughly. It did go to examine alcohol prohibition after that, and how it did not work well. It created underground pubs, even more pubs and speakeasies than there are now; it upped the number of users (I think) and increased the number of alcohol pointing incidents, and that is a fairly high number at this point of time; and it certainly did not stop people from drinking up when they wanted to.

When something is criminalized, it becomes more dangerous. Alcohol became illegal, and more people start to die because of it. Marijuana (yes, I decided pot looked too.. fancy lacking) becomes illegal, and it now has no regulation. There are several controversial issues surrounding the use of marijuana, many of them are due to a lack of education, but one of the health related issues is around smoking some hard chemicals.

These chemicals are not naturally found in the plant, however it is in the manure that is used to grow larger plants in less time. You are suppose to run your plant under fresh water for some time, I think it could be as long as a day, to ensure the chemicals are off of it; but if someone has a large scale grow off do you think they are going to be cleaning all of those plants? A large scale grow off is going to be for money, and as long as time is money the plants are going to remain dirty.

It may be easy to relate hippies to organic products, but due to social stereotyping hippies, pot, and organic seem to fit together very well in this situation. Grow organic. It's better for you. If you aren't sure of your source and how clean the plants are, be careful.

As for these other health issues that come up such as the killing of brain cells, 'it makes you stupid,' cancer, black lung, poor memory, and and I'll throw the laziness idea into this as well.

The 'study' that claimed it killed brain cells was not conducted properly. Instead of having the monkeys smoke the outrageous number of joints that were claimed; it turns out they pumped, the same quantity of smoke as they should of over a long period of time, into these monkeys all at once. They did not lose brain cells due to the marijuana. Rather it was due to suffocation. The idea of stupidity following a high, well of course you are not going to act as intelligent as you would when you are under the influence of any drug of that sort. Alcohol, marijuana, even too many antidepressants may do that I think.

There have been no studies to suggest that cancer will occur directly due to marijuana. I believe your chances are more likely if you smoke, but that is just if you smoke anything. The chemicals in marijuana do not effect your lungs the same way tobacco will; but the act of hot smoke entering your lungs is going to damaging no matter what. However, there are no cases of anything like black lung developing due to the use of marijuana.

In fact, there are no cases of any deaths directly due to marijuana use as well. Alcohol kills so many people every year. Street drugs claim some more lives. Pharmaceuticals are notable as well. Even over the counter drugs, such as Tylenol, claim lives every year. A twenty-four times overdose of this innocent pain killer will leave you with no pain, ever again. The amount it would take you to over done on marijuana is so ridiculous, I think it's fair to say it is impossible to do. Also, may I add in that marijuana can be an effective painkiller that may even be safer than Tylenol? I think I will.

As for the bad memory, well chronic use of marijuana will effect your hippocampus (a region of your brain that is very key in memory formation, and also a word my new spell check is rejecting) and the rumors are true. You may end up with a poor memory if you light up too often. How often is too often, I'm unsure of, however it may be little as once a week. This may not be related to memory, but I'll get to it later.

Laziness. When you are high, you might not feel very productive. The fact of the matter is that marijuana users are all around us. Half of the Canadian population will admit to trying it, at least, once through their life time. Your family, friends, coworkers and employee, may all be casual users and you'd never be able to tell. They are just as productive as they normally would be, but perhaps they enjoy the occasional joint. It's just like those who drink, but alcohol is a bit more socially acceptable.

In some areas, it has become socially acceptable to smoke marijuana. In Vancouver it is not too uncommon to see people lighting up on the streets. It's just like my favorite comparison, alcohol. Some people may not approve on it, but it would seem most people are not too bothered by it.

Back to laziness. Did you know that prohibition of marijuana originally came to the United States because of the exact opposite reason? The government was afraid that minorities were going to get high, become violent, and attack the rich, white population. This simply would not be acceptable for such a savage act to occur. After some time the government realized that this was not the case, and for a short amount of time it became an O.K. to have marijuana. Then the cold war came about. The idea that marijuana made you lazy, in combination of the Red Fear, the Red Menace, the worst concept to ever hit the Americas even though (in retrospect) it really doesn't look like the government or the general population knew what they were talking about; Communism! Now this plant was banned so the Soviet States did not encourage us all to be zombies due to marijuana; it pulled down hemp (the plant with over seven thousand uses other than smoking, because hemp will not have enough THC in it to get you high) because it was thought hemp would be grown with marijuana, to cover up the marijuana.

Ronald Reagan started the war on drugs, which really is just a war on marijuana with a few narcotic busts and smuggling operations shut downs on the side, or so it appears to me. He started this on a few ideas that really do not seem very stable, and that isn't mentioning the direct lies regarding marijuana being dangerous or not, and his ignoring the studies that said it was fine. I won't get into that though.

With this war started, of course there is going to be some retaliation. In this case, the retaliation has been the disregard of the war. It is easy to find marijuana, perhaps even easier to obtain than alcohol for under age individuals. Most dealers won't be asking for ID any time soon, just green backs (or money, if you happen to live in Canada and have money differentiable by colour as well as the stamp on the paper).

I mentioned there being a problem with smoking often, as little as once a week. There are studdies to suggest that smoking up when your brain is still developing, will put your emotional development behind and even stop it. If you were to smoke up once a week for your entire teen years, you may have the emotional level of a twelve year old for the rest of your life. You may never be able to understand why people are the way they are, you may never be able to understand how your actions effect individuals directly and indirectly, you may never fall in love.

This is where the idea of legalization may come into play. If it is legalized, it may become regulated. The chemicals that I mentioned before, could be limited or even eliminated if the growers were some how government regulated. Age limits could be put in place, just like alcohol and tobacco. This would not eliminate the use by those who are under age. It will just make it more inconvenient, maybe. I know if I wanted to I could acquire some booze and smokes despite my lack of age. Jails will have less people in them, due to the lack of charges related to petty crimes (the S-10 bill that was recently attempted to be passed in Canada, I'm not sure if it was or not or has not finished the deciding process yet, did not differentiate between having six plants and six thousand plants), and there would be less tax dollars put towards the elimination of marijuana. Canada has a five billion dollar anti-drug budget. Four fifths of that is put towards marijuana related activities (well the governments version of marijuana related activities).

BC has become such a strong point for the plant and those who grow and sell it, that if the police were to bust one grow off a day in some cities, there would be just as many (perhaps more) by the time the year was over. Many communities have way over 365.25 grow offs.

One of the major reasons I do not think marijuana will be legalized, or even decriminalized is taxing though. The dealers do not want it to be taxed. Are you aware of how much a pound of marijuana costs? BC Bud, marijuana grown in BC, will sell for 1800 to 2000 dollars. The further South you go, the higher the price. The further East you go, the higher the price as well. One pound of Texada Gold (a term I like much more than BC Bud) will sell for up to 6000 dollars in New York. Sellers do not want their product to be taxed.

The reason for this high price, no pun intended, is due to the fact it is illegal. The price of something is always going to go up once it made illegal, an example being reflective devices for license plates. In the UK, it was declared illegal to use a device that will reflect light off of your license plate if a picture or video is attempted to be taken of it. The result of using one was your car could not be ID'd by picture or video. There are other devices similar to these that were also banned, such as a cover that only allowed you to view the numbers and letters clearly from directly behind the vehicle using it. Soon as the products became illegal, the sales of them items went up. The demand went up as well I'm sure. With more demand the price of something will natural inflate; and if the fact it is illegal and must be transported around the law's vision, will add to this price.

Marijuana being illegal creates an underground trading system, a criminal trading system, and therefore an expensive trading system. I live in Powell River, right beside Texada. It's a six-fifty dollar ferry ride to the island, I think. I live next to an island that is world famous for having superb product, Texada Timewarp anyone? and if I were go seek out marijuana, I have the lowest price in Canada, if I am not mistaken.

When I say world famous, I'm not kidding at all. I've heard stories of friends who have gone to Mexico being offered Texada Gold. A friend of mine told me of a friend of his who was in the army, and in the middle east he was offered some Texada Timewarp.

Casual users want legalization or decriminalization (don't ask me for the difference, I am unsure). Sellers want it to stay illegal. Supporters who are not users, want legalization or decriminalization. Those who are against the product are likely not to say anything because they are happy with the system; though really, I would love to have a conversation with someone who is against the use of marijuana. I see very few downsides to it, if used responsibly. If I ever find anyone who is of such a state of mind, I should ask them.

I think the final step that Canada will have to take, to get over this idea that marijuana will not kill you on spot and the use or possession of should not be a criminal offense, is the United States. I'm certain that the U.S. is still so scared of not the Red Menace any more, but rather the Green Menace, that legalization or decriminalization will lead to the boarders being shut down. I am not sure if this is true and will actually happen, but I believe I was told that this was one of the biggest problems towards this goal.

I should rap this up, it's getting onto the early hours of the next day. Happy Valentines day, to all those who celebrate it. Personally, I'm just using it as an excuse to hang out with my girlfriend and buy desert. I'm sure many people will be wearing red at school, purposely. I think I'll wear all black, to compensate for their lack of lacking colour. As for my views on marijuana, I think it should be made legal (or decriminalized). It would save many tax dollars, create a taxable commodity. Hemp could also be re-popularized. The quality of the plant being sold could be improved (organic, makes for the win), and as much as a small population will dislike it; marijuana could have an age limit instead of a price limit. Maybe some people could even grow it for the plant itself, not the effects of consuming it. I think it is a nice looking plant, the leaves are quite iconic looking not to mention a very nice shade of green.

By the way, how'd my new spell check work? Anyone see any terrible errors?